Sales have continued to grow at supermarket chain Morrisons as the latest lockdown benefitted both stores and its wholesale business.
Total sales at the Bradford-based firm, including fuel, were up 5.3% in the 14 weeks to May 9 compared with a year earlier, including 113% growth in online sales.
The group also enjoyed strong growth in its wholesale division – up 21% – thanks to a new partnership with McColl’s convenience stores, where Morrisons supplied products to 230 extra sites in recent weeks.
Around 1.1% of the like-for-like growth came from the wholesale business, with the rest from its stores.
With fuel sales included, which bosses said were almost back to pre-pandemic levels, Morrisons saw a 5.3% jump as more motorists returned to the roads with lockdown restrictions easing.
Morissons said the pandemic had led to a “renaissance of the supermarket in Britain” and added that it was seeing a return of fuel sales as more people returned to workplaces.
But the company said the surge in Covid-19 cases earlier this year cost it £27m during the period to cover staff absences and extra store marshalls.
Chief executive David Potts said: “We’ve had an encouraging start to the year, with positive like-for-like sales and some good momentum across Morrisons both on a one and two-year view.
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“We said back in March that we expected to grow profits and reduce debt in the current year and I’m pleased to be both reiterating that guidance today and looking forward to a year of meaningful profit growth in 2022/23.
“The pandemic is not yet over, but it is in retreat across Britain and there is much to be positive about as something approaching normal life begins to take shape.
“Our forecourts are getting busier, we are seeing encouraging recent signs of a strong rebound of food-to-go, take-away counters and salad bars, and our popular cafés will soon fully reopen. The nation has a summer of socialising and sport to look forward to and we’ll all be able to rediscover the joys of meeting up and eating well together.
“Whichever way consumers choose to enjoy their renewed freedom, we will be there for them.”
Morrisons said it had made “substantial progress” on its Fix, Rebuild, Grow, Sustain strategy, and highlighted its acquisition of Cornish seafood business Falfish.
It said would open new stores in Kirkby and Chelmsford in the year ahead, along with temporary replacement stores in Camden and Little Clacton.
The company said the reducing costs related to pandemic safety measures and the re-opening of cafes will help it in the year ahead.
It said it hoped its debt levels would fall and was “confident of a year of meaningful profit growth”.